


Crows

by Wallwalker



Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Community: 100_leitmotifs, Drama, Gen, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-02
Updated: 2009-12-02
Packaged: 2017-10-04 02:39:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wallwalker/pseuds/Wallwalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She watches them fly, and she sees them fall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crows

A thousand crows flew in the clear blue sky. Rinoa stood in the dying winter field and watched, fascinated by the sight. There were so many of them, and they all seemed to fly in sync with each other, weaving and bobbing.

It was so unbelievable, that such _ugly_ birds could fly like that. They were such nasty little creatures, dirty carrion-eaters who'd just as happily eat _her_ if she were to fall down dead in that field. And they cawed and cawed and cawed, and the sound echoed around her and over her and through her until she thought her ears would burst.

"Stop it!" she shouted at the sky, but the horribly black birds didn't stop. They kept wheeling in midair, and their cawing sounded to her like laughter - _foolish little girl, who are you to tell us to stop?_

She stamped her foot on the frozen ground in frustration, and took a deep breath to scream again -

A shot rang out. Rinoa, too startled to scream, turned to find the sound, and was astonished to see a man standing near her in the field. His back was turned to her, but she could see the rifle in his hands, aimed at the sky. Above him, she saw one of the birds fall out of the murder of crows and fall slowly, too slowly, to the ground.

She pitied the birds, then, even though they were dirty and loud and hateful. They might not be very nice to her, but they flew through the sky - that made them her kind, didn't it? And that faceless man had no right to shoot them down, did he? What had they ever done to him, that they had to die?

She ran further into the field where the man stood, his rifle still pointed at the sky. "Hey!" she yelled as loudly as she could. "Stop it! Leave those birds alone, you big... you big jerk!"

The man didn't listen to her. He just lifted his rifle and fired again, and another bird screamed as it fell.

"Stop it, or I'll... I'll burn you, that's what I'll do!" Her heart pounded at the thought of it. Desperately she hoped that he would stop, that she wouldn't have to make good on her ultimatum. She didn't want to burn him, didn't want to hurt another person, but what could she do? How else could she stop someone that heartless?

The man hesitated for a moment, as if considering her ultimatum. Then he fired again, and this time two birds fell, both of them spiraling to the ground like angels falling to Earth.

"All right," she said, "you... you asked for it!" She lifted her arm and pointed at him, eyes narrowed. She could feel herself rising from the earth, her own wings spreading, her own power stirring inside of her as she screamed for the fire to come. All at once the flames burst from the earth around him, falling on the faceless man like soldiers, burning hotter and fiercer than any fire she'd ever called before.

He didn't scream. The fire didn't even seem to touch him. He slowly turned around, and the fire danced around and behind him as he looked straight at her, and -

_Oh God, no, no - _

He wasn't a faceless man at all, standing in those dead fields, flames licking at his long formal coat and his immaculately pressed trousers.

He was her _father_ -

\--

Rinoa woke up screaming. She couldn't _stop_, even while Squall tried and tried to comfort her, even when her throat was raw and her lungs almost burst with the pain.

They were still falling.


End file.
